The gender gap in economic dependency over the life cycle: some theoretical and practical considerations

Abstract

Economic analysis usually defines the period of dependency with arbitrary age limits that are independent of country, year, gender and other factors. This paper uses the National Transfer Accounts methodology, which defines dependency by the life cycle periods in which individuals’ consumption exceeds their labour income. The novelty of the paper is the decomposition of the results by gender, as well as the retrospective pre- and post-crisis analysis for the 2000–2012 period. Slovenia, an ageing European society with a small, open economy, is used as a showcase. The findings indicate that, in Slovenia in 2012, women were able to finance their consumption through their labour income for 29.0 years, compared to 35.9 years for men, with a significant decrease in the gender gap in economic dependency over time, from 7.9 years in 2000 to 6.9 in 2012. It would seem that the economic crisis interrupted the path to equal periods of economic dependency for both genders. However, overall, the gender gap tends to decrease, despite the economic crisis.